World Bank Group · Median Daily Income or Consumption per Person
Median income per day by country
How much does the person in the middle of the income ladder live on each day?
Luxembourg placed first of the 60 countries compared in 2023, at 89.5, and Uganda last, at 2.8. In the middle country the figure was 22.8. Among the 24 countries measured in every edition since 2002, the middle one moved from 10.8 to 31.4.
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Part ofPoverty & Inequality
Median income per day · 2023
Context statistic
Highest of 60Luxembourg
89.5012023 · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the highest end of 60 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium · CC BY-SA 2.0, greyscale
2Photo: Ximonic , Simo Räsänen · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
3Photo: Simon Koopmann derivative work: Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 2.0 de, greyscale
Highest on each continent
- Africa
Rwanda3.52 of 55 measured
- Americas
United States69.7 - Asia
Cyprus52.1 - EuropeLuxembourg89.5
- Oceania
Kiribati8.11 of 21 measured
- Every region
02Every measured country
Median income per day on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a higher value — the better end.
- 2.8–8.7
- 10.2–15.8
- 16.4–30.2
- 33.0–50.5
- 52.1–89.5
- No reading in 2023 (109 measured in an earlier edition)
- Europe
43.2
the middle country, of 28 measured · 49 members
Luxembourg89.5
Moldova11.6Highest and lowest reading in Europe.
- Americas
15.7
the middle country, of 15 measured · 48 members
United States69.7
Honduras7.5Highest and lowest reading in Americas.
- Asia
9.3
the middle country, of 14 measured · 52 members
Cyprus52.1
India5.9Highest and lowest reading in Asia.
- Africa
2 of 55 measured — too few for a middle: Rwanda, Uganda.
Rwanda3.5
Uganda2.8Highest and lowest reading in Africa.
- Oceania
1 of 21 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati.
Kiribati8.1Highest and lowest reading in Oceania.
- Every region
14 sub-regions, highest middle country first
- Western Europe
71.4
the middle country, of 5 measured · 9 members
Luxembourg89.5
France57.2Highest and lowest reading in Western Europe.
- Northern Europe
53.0
the middle country, of 8 measured · 13 members
Norway77.8
Latvia33.0Highest and lowest reading in Northern Europe.
- Southern Europe
42.0
the middle country, of 8 measured · 17 members
Malta56.0
Serbia21.1Highest and lowest reading in Southern Europe.
- Eastern Europe
30.2
the middle country, of 7 measured · 10 members
Czechia39.1Moldova11.6Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Europe.
- South America
15.1
the middle country, of 8 measured · 12 members
Uruguay25.9
Peru10.3Highest and lowest reading in South America.
- Central America
11.9
the middle country, of 5 measured · 8 members
Costa Rica18.9Honduras7.5Highest and lowest reading in Central America.
- Western Asia
11.5
the middle country, of 6 measured · 19 members
Cyprus52.1
Armenia7.7Highest and lowest reading in Western Asia.
- Caribbean
1 of 24 measured — too few for a middle: Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic15.7Highest and lowest reading in Caribbean.
- Central Asia
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan12.6
Kyrgyzstan6.3Highest and lowest reading in Central Asia.
- Eastern Africa
2 of 19 measured — too few for a middle: Rwanda, Uganda.
Rwanda3.5Uganda2.8Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Micronesia
1 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati.
Kiribati8.1Highest and lowest reading in Micronesia.
- Northern America
1 of 4 measured — too few for a middle: United States.
United States69.7Highest and lowest reading in Northern America.
- South-eastern Asia
3 of 11 measured — too few for a middle: Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand.
Thailand16.4
Indonesia6.2Highest and lowest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Asia
2 of 9 measured — too few for a middle: India, Iran.
Iran10.2India5.9Highest and lowest reading in Southern Asia.
03The whole field at once
The spread
60 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 22.8; a quarter are above 47.7, and a quarter below 10.8. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 169 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first. “=” marks a position shared with another country. World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. Whether a row measures income or consumption depends on the survey the country ran, and the two are not the same yardstick — consumption usually reads lower — so check the survey type before comparing two rows. It is a household-survey measure and runs far below GDP per head, which counts everything an economy produces. The mean is shown beside it.
Showing 25 of 169 countries
Values for 2023. The change column compares 2023 with 2022 only; the sparkline covers the recent editions.
052002–2023 · 22 reference years
Over time
Each point is one reference year from 2002, in constant 2021 PPP dollars, so a rising line is a real rise in what the middle person can buy, not inflation.
- the middle country
- the middle half of countries
- the middle of the 24 countries measured every time
- each continent’s middle country
The same, year by year
| Year | Countries | Middle country | Middle half | Measured every time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 60 | 22.8 | 10.8 – 47.7 | 31.4 |
| 2022 | 73 | 17.4 | 10.2 – 39.5 | 29.3 |
| 2021 | 82 | 17.6 | 8.9 – 46.3 | 29.8 |
| 2020 | 71 | 25.1 | 12.5 – 49.4 | 28.9 |
| 2019 | 79 | 19.8 | 11.1 – 46.3 | 28.2 |
| 2018 | 94 | 16.5 | 9.4 – 42.8 | 26.6 |
| 2017 | 79 | 19.5 | 11.3 – 44.4 | 25.1 |
| 2016 | 84 | 16.9 | 10.5 – 41.8 | 24.0 |
| 2015 | 87 | 14.5 | 8.0 – 36.2 | 23.0 |
| 2014 | 84 | 15.9 | 8.9 – 38.7 | 21.9 |
| 2013 | 78 | 17.5 | 10.4 – 39.6 | 20.2 |
| 2012 | 87 | 13.4 | 8.1 – 36.9 | 19.2 |
| 2011 | 82 | 15.1 | 8.9 – 37.1 | 18.6 |
| 2010 | 87 | 13.1 | 7.1 – 38.0 | 18.2 |
| 2009 | 83 | 12.6 | 7.6 – 38.7 | 18.0 |
| 2008 | 79 | 16.1 | 9.0 – 40.9 | 19.9 |
| 2007 | 73 | 15.6 | 7.9 – 42.1 | 18.5 |
| 2006 | 82 | 11.9 | 8.9 – 34.9 | 15.6 |
| 2005 | 81 | 9.4 | 5.8 – 34.8 | 13.4 |
| 2004 | 75 | 11.9 | 6.2 – 37.5 | 12.4 |
| 2003 | 69 | 9.5 | 5.2 – 33.7 | 13.0 |
| 2002 | 68 | 7.8 | 4.8 – 12.5 | 10.8 |
062022 → 2023
Who rose and fell
The biggest changes in value between the two newest editions — reference years recalculated in one report, not two separate publications. Places are shown second, because they also move when other countries do.
Improved most
before → afterDeclined most
before → after
Austria72.7 → 71.4 · 3rd → 4th−1.2
Italy49.9 → 48.8 · 15th → 15th−1.1
Switzerland72.3 → 71.8 · 4th → 3rd−0.5- Czechia39.5 → 39.1 · 19th → 17th−0.4
- Thailand16.7 → 16.4 · 38th → 36th−0.4
51 countries were measured in both 2022 and 2023. The field changed from 73 to 60 countries, so a place can move for reasons that have nothing to do with the country itself.
07Across every edition
Median income per day in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading on record
89.5
Median income or consumption per person, 2021 PPP dollars a day
Lowest reading on record
0.8
Median income or consumption per person, 2021 PPP dollars a day
Biggest improvement between editions
+13.2
21.3 → 34.5
Biggest decline between editions
−6.9
59.4 → 52.6
Most improved since first measured
+26.9
10.7 → 37.6
At the top most often
14 of 22
editions, alone at the first-listed end
08The measure
About median income per day
This is what the person in the middle of a country’s income distribution lives on each day — half the population have less, half have more — in 2021 purchasing-power-parity dollars, so a dollar buys the same basket everywhere. It is the closest single number to a typical person’s living standard, and unlike an average it is not lifted by a few very high incomes.
What the number is: Median income or consumption per person, 2021 PPP dollars a day.
09Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Poverty & Inequality, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Moves with
Where median income per day is higher, these tend to be higher too.
No statistic lines up this closely.
Moves against
Where median income per day is higher, these tend to be lower.
No statistic lines up this closely.
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 0 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
10Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The countries at either end
More from World Bank Group
11Questions
Median income per day: questions and answers
Which country has the highest median income per day?
Luxembourg, at 89.5, among the 60 countries compared in 2023.
Which country has the lowest median income per day?
Uganda, at 2.8, among the 60 countries compared in 2023.
How many countries does the Median Daily Income or Consumption per Person cover?
60 in 2023, and 169 at least once across all editions. The number measured varies from 60 to 94 between editions.
What is the world average median income per day?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 60 compared in 2023, the figure was 22.8.
Is this World Bank Group’s own ranking?
No. World Bank Group publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Median Daily Income or Consumption per Person published?
This site holds 22 reference years, 2002–2023, all recalculated in World Bank Group’s 2026 report on one method — not 22 separate publications.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From World Bank Group, under CC BY 4.0. Read from the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform, which publishes the median to four decimals; the Bank’s indicator API carries no median at all. Years outside 2002–2023 fall below 60 countries and are not imported. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
12Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Median Daily Income or Consumption per Person — World Bank Group
Read from the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform, which publishes the median to four decimals; the Bank’s indicator API carries no median at all. Years outside 2002–2023 fall below 60 countries and are not imported.
Newest edition
Report year 2023Data year 2023
Cite the source as: World Bank. Poverty and Inequality Platform. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, checked 2026-09-26.
How this page reads the numbers
- World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Photographs
The countries at the top of this statistic, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.
- Luxembourg — Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Norway — Ximonic , Simo Räsänen, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Switzerland — Simon Koopmann derivative work: Jjtkk, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Median income per day by country: Median Daily Income or Consumption per Person, data from World Bank Group. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/median-daily-income